Abstract
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Yash Raj Films is one of India’s most successful film production studios with a massive
global market. The influence of a powerful Indian diaspora provides film directors from
the Bollywood stable of Yash Chopra (Yash Raj Films) with a wealth of international
settings. These settings in turn provide a site for an assertive Indian nationalism
based upon the adoption of cosmopolitan lifestyles. This paper examines three recent
films, Khabi Kushi Khabhie Gham, Khabie Alvida Naa Kehna, and Salaam Namaste!,
to see how London, New York, and Melbourne are reconfigured as cities in which
Indian e´migre´s make their mark – they are successful in their careers (mostly) and
comfortable in their new surroundings. Such films are suggestive of a new ‘global
cinema’ in which the geographical confines of national cinema are being stretched.
Drawing on a tripartite thematic framework, we explore the visual geographies, the
heightened consumption patterns, and the sense of global cosmopolitanism presented
in these films. And while the underlying sentiment is that one always sees ‘home’ (i.e.,
India) as an idealized paradise, the new cosmopolitanism adopted by Indian e´migre´s in
these films serves to highlight the ease with which Indian nationals can find success in
global environments.